Mediterranean Marvels: Unveiling the Heritage of Iconic Cities
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The thread that ties it all together is a region of hybrid cultures, ancient civilizations, and millennia-old monuments. This huge part of the world is full of historical and cultural treasures, from Greek monuments to Moroccan medinas.
I feel privileged to have been able to visit several of the cities of the Mediterranean. What I noticed in being there and in reading about them is that each has its own story; in each case, what you see was built because of some aspect of the city’s past; it was already there.
This allows you, if you are at all receptive, to feel as though you’re entering a history to a degree that you don’t in other places. It enables the sense of discovery and wonder that I’ve been talking about, whether this takes place in some backstreet in an old town or inside the remains of some monumental architectural project.
Ancient Legacies: A Journey Through Time
Civilisation has had a locus in the Mediterranean basin for centuries, engendering the rise of some of the most influential empires and cultures known to man. Take the ancient Greeks, without whom we would be devoid of much of the architecture, philosophy, or art we regularly encounter daily.
The cities of Athens and Corinth, for instance, still contain relics from the ancient Greek civilization, and a walk through the Acropolis or the Agora in Athens can evoke in one a sense of having walked into a living museum, with every stone bearing the story of thousands of years of human existence.
The Parthenon, in particular, is a treasured piece of classical Greek architecture, illustrating the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the ancient Athenians.
Only slightly behind came the Romans through feats of engineering such as the Colosseum in Rome, the Forum, or Pompeii and Carthage, a testament to the greatness and expansion of the empire.
The Colosseum is a wonder of Roman engineering and a reminder of the scale of Roman life, the magnificence of its shows, and the startling Prince Harry effect I experienced when visiting.
The Forum is an archaeological site in Rome where history comes alive to transport you to the time when this metropolis was the center of the ancient world. Pompeii’s remarkably well-preserved ruins show what daily life was like for residents of this city before Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.
While the earliest traces came from the classical world, it was the Middle Ages that saw the epic imperial voyages and cultural cross-fertilization that contributed the most to the Mediterranean’s heritage.
It was the Byzantine Empire that left us Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and its crowning glory, the Hagia Sophia. The city, once the capital of the Byzantine Empire and today’s Turkey, produced not only this magnificent monument, once a basilica and later a mosque, boasting extraordinary mosaics, but is imbued with its profound religious and cultural history.
Cities such as Córdoba, Granada, and Cairo in the Islamic Golden Age were thriving centers of learning, art, and architecture. The iconic arched entryways and mosaic walls of the Great Mosque of Córdoba serve as a stunning example of Moorish architecture.
Likewise, the Alhambra Palace in Granada, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is considered a showcase of Islamic art and design, thanks to its intricate carvings, vibrant gardens, and intricately designed courtyards.
Maritime Republics and the Renaissance
Trading links across the Mediterranean directly connected the great cities of the region. They boosted the importance of the maritime republics (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) as the embellishers of the most impressive architectural legacy.
The Grand Canal in Venice, teeming with white gondolas gently swishing on aquamarine waters, was where dukes sailed and composed poetry amid stunning prevalences of palaces, churches, and squares: St Mark’s Square with its imposing basilica, and the elegant Rialto Bridge. In its heyday, Venice was the eminent maritime power of the Mediterranean.
The Renaissance gave the region a cultural revival in places like Florence, Rome, and Venice, where art, literature, and invention flourished.
In Florence, the David statue of the Renaissance master Michelangelo and the frescoes of Raphael in the Sistine Chapel are splendid manifestations of artistic genius that draw crowds of visitors.
The St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, built by the masters of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, Bernini, and others, displays the artistic and architectural splendors of the city.
Modern Mediterranean Marvels
The legacy of the Mediterranean is strong: the old quarters of many of its cities are beautiful, and some of the great sites on its coastline are well worth visiting. Yet many of its most evocative and impressive cities are not ancient at all.
In the 20th century, Barcelona had Gaudi. His cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, is still being built. The best way to appreciate it is to visit the Sagrada Familia itself to understand the sense of awe with which Gaudi’s blend of the Gothic and the Art Nouveau is appreciated, as it still is at Gaudi’s creations in the refreshing green spaces of the Park Güell.
The seaside towns of Marseille and Nice along the French Riviera have an irresistible combination of marine attractions, arts and culture, and heritage appeal. In Marseille, the Le Panier district, which features a maze of winding streets and colorful, pastel-hued houses, oozes a pure Provençailles ambiance.
In Nice, one can take a stroll along the glamorous Promenade des Anglais, with its swaying palm trees and ornately refined hotels on the Mediterranean seafront.
Immersing in the Local Culture
A tour of the Mediterranean heritage would only be complete with plunging into local culture; each port offers its cuisine, from the tapas of Spain to the mezze of Greece. Eating is a pleasure of the senses that goes beyond nourishment.
Tasting fresh local fish, vegetables, and wine straight from the food producers is a wonderful way to get in touch with the land and its people.
Listening to the joyful noise at cultural festivals and celebrations can fill you in on the region’s buoyant life. There’s the Festa della Sensa in Venice (the Marriage to the Sea), which has been taking place in May since the beginning of the Republic, or the battle of tomatoes in the town of Buñol in Spain during La Tomatina.
One of the most rewarding aspects of visiting any medieval city in the Mediterranean today is engaging with the last remaining craftspeople and artisans, from watchmakers in Cartagena, Spain, to glassblowers in Murano, Italy; from weavers in Marrakesh, Morocco, to ceramic-makers in Fez, Morocco. Seeing in action techniques and practices developed over centuries is a humbling and edifying experience on various levels.
Responsible Tourism and Sustainability
We need to tread more lightly when visiting these cultural assets, and increasingly, many Mediterranean cities are taking steps to ensure that their built heritage stays around for tomorrow’s visitors.
You can assist by patronizing local businesses, sustainable tourism projects, and eco-tourism hotels. Do your bit to support the effort by UNESCO and other authorities at the state and local levels to maintain these sites.
Venice, for instance, caps the number of visitors allowed into the historic center and regulates the number of cruise ships passing through the lagoon to help reduce tourism-related impacts on the fragile infrastructure and the city’s scenery.
The Moroccan Sustainable Tourism Program supports local development and aims to conserve the country’s culture and heritage, such as the medinas (old cities) and traditional craft small-scale enterprises. Participants can participate in programs by patronizing local businesses and embracing local customs, such as hiking or camping in the Atlas Mountains.
The deep layers of history—the heritage of the Mediterranean cities—were a rich canvas, its colors now fading and stitched together in an intricate and evolving design of places and periods, woven by successive threads from Greece and Rome to the Renaissance cities of Italy, the Baroque of Spain and France, and the contemporary.
Do so in a way that shows respect for their traditions, enlists the assistance of locals, makes an economic contribution to the actual sites, and encourages the conservation practices necessary for the continued burial of the extraordinary cities where we can now journey to walk upon their surfaces.